Can Gamma Ray Energy Be Reduced to Visible Light Through Material Interaction?

[ryanuser]

Hi, my question is that would it be possible to reduce the energy and frequency of gamma rays to visible light then maintain it at that level?

 

[mfb]

What do you mean with "reduce" and "maintain"? Gamma rays cannot just change their energy, but they can collide with matter and get converted to something else, visible light can be produced in those processes.

 

[ryanuser]

Thanks for your response, even though you may have not understood my question you have answered what I needed to know. Furthermore what are those process?

 

[ryanuser]

Actually what I meant there was after the gamma rays are emitted from an unstable nucleus, can we decrease its frequency so the frequency becomes same as visible light? Can lead be useful?

 

[Matterwave]

You could run away from the gamma ray very quickly, allowing the Doppler shift to shift it to visible light. But the speed at which you would have to be traveling away from the source would be very close to the speed of light.

You'd have to reduce the frequency by about 6 orders of magnitude...which requires velocities at something like .999999999999c ...

 

[Dozent100]

No. And it you did, It wouldn't be Gamma any more.

 

[Astronuc]

Thanks for your response, even though you may have not understood my question you have answered what I needed to know. Furthermore what are those process?

Photons change frequency or are absorbed when they interact with matter.

Clearly starlight stays visible for a long time - billions of years in some cases.

 

[mfb]

Furthermore what are those process?

Interaction with material.
As an example, the gamma rays can transfer a part of their energy to electrons, those electrons lose their energy by passing close to other charged objects (atoms in the material), emitting photons at lower energy. Some of them can be visible light.